Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JAWINSEOUL]

I'm interested in hearing why the richest country in the world is failing to educate their youth. American students fail in international comparisons, placing 18th in reading, 22nd in science and 28th in math — behind countries like Poland, Canada, Australia and Korea. Are American kids less intelligent?

[khyber]

I can't imagine that it's a generation thing. Not 5 years ago, the US was still up there weren't they?

I can't even begin to suggest what it may be as i have absolutely no experience in american education.

edit:
Who am I kidding? Yes, I have one theory.
The teachers.
The teachers are scared shitless of doing anything cause they don't want to lose their jobs or get their pants sued off.

It appears as though the US is spending a LARGER portion of their GDP and BUDGET on education than canada

[Ya-ta Boy]

My theory: Other countries are more selective in who they test and which test results they turn in for international comparisons.

[Hater Depot]

[khyber]

I don't think it's very fair to students to say "they're lazy" and then provide examples of other countries where ADULTS CREATED MOTIVATION for them.

but wait a sec....

[Ya-ta Boy]

[cubanlord]

[HapKi]

This was on 20/20 last night.
According to the program, teacher's unions are very strong, making it very hard to fire bad teachers. Also, there is no competition in the American school system. Parents pretty much are forced to send their children to the schools in their zone. If federal money was attached to the student, rather than the school, as it is done in European countries, children could have more choices as to where they want to go, and thus schools would work harder to attract them.
Competition raises the bar on education levels.

[Hater Depot]

Right, because competition is producing hagwons that care more about education than profit.

[canuckistan]

Seriously? Too many don't grow up eating healthy food on any regular basis. Take a look at the average North Americans' shopping cart at the grocery store--it's mostly highly prcessed products laden with suger, fat and salt--or super-giant sized portions at fast food restuarants.

You can't learn well eating crap every day.

Fresh vegetables? Normal straight-out-of-the-ground etc food?
Where?!!!!

[hermes.trismegistus]

As competition increases, cooperation decreases.

As cooperation decreases, communication decreases.

The power-over paradigm favors competition because it prevents the holistic solutions implicit in cooperative paradigms.

Competition-heavy paradigms create domesticated primates - not human beings.

The fact that some countries manage to produce better worker-drones who have sound competence in taking standardized tests and regurgitating data does not matter in the least. This cannot be used as a standard for competence. It does not measure intelligence or cognitive competence. Actual intelligence, as discussed by Hawkins in On Intelligence involves the novel synthesis of invariant representations and the ability to manipulate symbols to accurately represent those representations. Standardized tests do not gauge this ability.

The US may have some proficiency in creating these drones, but the US also has far more access to potentially debilitating distractions. As Canuckistan wrote, diet plays a role here as well, as does a national penchant to acquiesce personal responsibility, complacency, greed and a host of other issues.

Looking at the issue in such simplistic terms [as implied in the options for the poll] won't create insight into the actual problem.

Namaste.

[krats1976]

[Corporal]

cough*homeschool*cough...

[canuckistan]

[hermes.trismegistus]